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This last month saw significant progress in the movement to give worker benefits to independent contractors (so-called "portable benefits"). Job platform startup, Thumbtack, announced a partnership to test out a system of portable benefits with the nonprofit, the National Domestic Workers Alliance. And, on the federal level, Senator Mark Warner introduced a suite of bills aimed solving future of work issues, including one to test out a series of pilots of portable benefits in different states (disclosure: I am a contractor with Tech4America, a policy nonprofit).

What was particularly interesting about both Warner's bill and Thumbtack's announcement was the commitment to pilot small experiments. In Congress, typically, a bill would try to establish a nation-wide economic policy, rather than fund lots of different pilots. Similarly, in the technology industry, a company would often roll out some kind of ambitious idea to their entire company, such as when Amazon instituted a minimum wage nationwide last year.

This tends to make trying out new ideas more difficult. The promise of portable benefits has been stymied for years because it's unclear how to roll out such a novel concept.

But, Thumbtack appears to be approaching launching a portable benefits policy much like tech companies launch other new ideas, as a "minimal viable product". Thumbtack's partnership with portable benefits system Alia is only available in two states (California and New York) and will only be available for one occupation among the many on its platform.

With such a small pilot, Thumbtack could move forward on a relatively untested concept, knowing that it will probably encounter challenges. The potential blowback is mitigated when a smaller population is at risk and they know that they are testing a beta product.

Similarly, Senator Warner could offer up a passable bill because the law itself would only fund different experiments around the country; his office doesn't actually need to know how to design a portable benefits system. It's much (much) more difficult to write a bill that attempts to anticipate all the possible needs that millions of people will have with a new kind of benefits system.

This minimal viable strategy could be an important way that both members of Congress and tech companies end up tackling difficult modern economic issues.

Gregory Ferenstein is the editor of the Ferenstein Wire, a
syndicated publication on tech, health, and politics. In his spare
time, he teaches Mathematics and enjoys…

Gregory Ferenstein is the editor of the Ferenstein Wire, a
syndicated publication on tech, health, and politics. In his spare
time, he teaches Mathematics and enjoys Capoeira, an Brazilian
acrobatic martial art.